本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist 2016年第38期，United States版块。

Income and poverty

Median incomes soared in 2015

Sep 17th 2016 | WASHINGTON, DC

THE median real household income grew by a whacking[极大的(地),巨大的(地)] 5.2%, or $2,800, in 2015, according to figures released on September 13th. A purring labour market accounts for the bulk of[大多数;大部分] the rise: that year average weekly earnings in the private-sector[(国家经济的)私营部分] grew by 2.4%, while the fraction of 25- to 54-year-olds employed rose by 0.7%. Low inflation also helped. Prices rose just 0.1% in 2015, down from 1.6% growth in 2014, primarily as a result of much cheaper petrol. Janet Yellen, chairman of the Federal Reserve[美联储], recently estimated that the average household saved $780 at the pump[加油站] last year.

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Bucking recent trends, the wallets of the poor and least-educated swelled[增加;扩大;膨胀] the most. Income at the twentieth percentile (meaning the level at which exactly one-fifth of the population earns less) grew by over 6%. The average income of households headed by someone who left school before ninth grade—typically reached at age 14 or 15— grew a fulsome[1] 12.5%, compared with just 3.2% growth in those headed by someone with a bachelor’s degree or more. Just as the disadvantaged are usually the first to lose their jobs in a recession, they have been the last to benefit as the economy has recently closed in on full employment, argues Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think-tank. That also helps to explain a fall in the poverty rate from 14.8% to 13.5%—the largest annual percentage-point drop in poverty since 1999.

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However, there is long way to go before recent rises in inequality are undone. Real incomes for low-and-middle earners are lower than before the financial crisis, and still further beneath where they were in 2000. For the richest, they are higher on both measures (see chart). Nonetheless, Americans’ economic spirits are high. Since the start of 2015 consumer confidence[2] has, on average, been higher than in any year since 2004. In the second quarter of 2016, real consumption per person grew at an annual pace of 3.6%. Brakes remain on economic growth: business investment is weak[企业/商业投资疲软] and productivity is falling[生产力下降]. But workers and consumers are apparently yet to notice.

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[1]fulsome：expressing a lot of admiration or praise for someone, often too much, in a way that does not sound sincere 过分恭维的；谄媚的；言过其实的

Her new book has received fulsome praise from the critics.

评论界对她的新书称赞得言过其实。

Our guests were fulsome in their compliments about the food.

我们的客人对饭菜极尽溢美之词。

[2]消费者信心指数（Consumer Confidence Index ，CCI）是反映消费者信心强弱的指标，是综合反映并量化消费者对当前经济形势评价和对经济前景、收入水平、收入预期以及消费心理状态的主观感受，是预测经济走势和消费趋向的一个先行指标，是监测经济周期变化不可缺少的依据。

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

原文摘自The economist，仅外语学习之用。

其中生词解释来源于Cambridge Dictionaries

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